Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 25
Though several untoward incidents have been reported in the past in which miscreants targeted tourists, the administration seems least concerned with tourists’ safety in the city.
In the absence of strong safety measures, most of the tourists avoid to visit the city alone. Travel websites suggest foreign tourists to avoid going outside their hotels in late evening. It is worth mentioning here that many incidents of robbery, misbehaviour and sexual assaults have been reported with tourists, including foreigners.
To address the problems being faced by tourists, the city police had come up with a proposal of Tourist Police in 2002. But the police failed to implement the proposal. However, three attempts were made during the past 15 years. The authorities had built booths for Tourism Police but all these booths are not in use and are lying vacant. The administration had installed eight booths of Amritsar Tourism Police at key places, including the Golden Temple, railway station, airport, bus stand, the Durgiana Temple, Ranjit Avenue and Bhandari Bridge. The objective of these booths was to act as tourist-felicitation centres providing all information of trains and flight schedules, nearest tourist circuits available, details of tourist places in and around the city and registering complaints of tourists besides helping them in distress.
According to information, the police did not find suitable staff for the job of Tourist Police. Last year, the police arranged a five-day orientation course for 56 men and women officials for the job.